


Mortua Corona

by AlibiNonsense



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Acrostic, Crown, Emptiness of ambition, Frailty of power, Gen, Poetry, Symbolism, Tower of London scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 15:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlibiNonsense/pseuds/AlibiNonsense
Summary: In which Moriarty waits for his audience and the crown sits dead on his head.





	Mortua Corona

Here is a crown and a man in a room

Overhead wooden bones of the building loom

Not a burden to bear

Ermine absent up there

Yet below is the womb of the power; below

 

Yes below, where the man and the crown are alone

Only symbols and heavy-band circlets and bone

Under beams, above floor, just the man on his own

 

Simple room, exhibition a central display

His, a lazy smile; teeth shattered glass in their rows

On the door are his eyes; empty room, empty gaze

Under time, over stone, power sat in its pose

Living breath of the man

Dead wherever he goes

 

So the crown is the mask

Empty crown

Empty eyes

 

Man in ermine and jeans

Every role a disguise

 

In the weight of the wait, and the slight-slipping smile

Nothing moves but the breath of the man for a while

 

(And he can’t see the crown where he’s sat)

 

Cape a noose round a neck; crown halo of lead

Room full up of the empty and broken and dead

One alone, without rules

Wearing t-shirt and jewels

No-one there but the crown in his head


End file.
